Two ancient clay tablets discovered in Iraq and covered from top to bottom in cuneiform writing contain details of a “lost” Canaanite language that has remarkable similarities with ancient Hebrew.The tablets, thought to be nearly 4,000 years old, record phrases in the almost unknown language of the Amorite people, who were originally from Canaan — the area that’s roughly now Syria, Israel and Jordan — but who later founded a kingdom in Mesopotamia. These phrases are placed alongside translations in the Akkadian language, which can be read by modern scholars.In effect, the tablets are similar to the famous Rosetta Stone, which had an inscription in one known language (ancient Greek) in parallel with two unknown written ancient Egyptian scripts (hieroglyphics and demotic.) In this case, the known Akkadian phrases are helping researchers read written Amorite.
Source: Cryptic lost Canaanite language decoded on ‘Rosetta Stone’-like tablets | Live Science
